Part 5: Central Utah

We headed towards central Utah the next morning. Word on the street is that the desert is hot so we woke up at the crack of dawn and headed into Arches National Park to avoid the heat and the crowds. Our goal was to make it to the Devil’s garden and do the long loop before we started getting delusional from heat and dehydration. Well that didn’t exactly happen. We started out strong and got lost from the trail within 15 minutes. After climbing massive rocks to search for the trail we wandered back in the right direction. Everything in this tundra looks like a path okay? Not our fault okay? Okay. Fast forward, 13 miles later and now its noon and scorching, we make it back to the car and I drink an entire gallon of iced tea and 4 of the huge water bottles. The rest of the day we reluctantly left the AC in the car to explore Arches further and stuck to short hikes. That afternoon we moved to Canyonlands National Park which is simply wild. It is on top of a butte that overlooks what seems to be all of Utah. I mean you can see for miles and miles and years and years. This scenic drive took us to cliffs and overlooks like I had never seen. There were winding dirt roads down the cliffs below us and tiny specs of roads continuing off into the haze. And it was stunning and we were awestruck. We found a picture perfect cliff (believe me you’ll see all those photos if you scroll down) and we sat and watched the sun burnt orange rocks fade into shadow and the day end.